Printing Out Photo Books

My recent favorite is Smilebooks. The quality is great for the price. I have been disappointed with Blurb and Viovio. My books that I made with them have not held up well. Adoramapix is excellent. I made a special travel book with them that lays flat. It's pricey though, so for regular scrapbooks I usually use Smilebooks.

I just ordered on scrapbooksplease.com I had made a few pages on Artisan and was trying to figure out where to print them. They had a deal going so I got a free 8x8 premium luster print too! thank you for the suggestion.

Now I know that only a few members of the pixelscrapper community are based in or around Germany, but for local service here, I vote for Posterxxl.de. They have sales on ever so often (currently, too) for books in different formats, up to 96 pages, for 20 Euros plus postage. One of the two formats always excluded, sadly, is the 12x12 format. But even at 60% those pages people create will look awesome. So if you want to give a gift to somebody over here, consider having it printed here downsized - 96 pages in hardcover at 6x6 at 20 Euros is a very good price. The offer comes and goes and comes and goes and...
I am very happy with their quality, but so far I have only had them print stuff that I created within their own software. Now that you all have made me test my limits, I have no idea what the new book will look like. What the heck will happen to metals and glitters, which were not available from their software? Will keep you posted.

Chelle's Creations just did a post on this recently (which I read). She's printed out many books, and was asked to do a Photobook review, and discussed the numerous reasons why she likes AdoramaPix the best (included illustrations showing why as well). I haven't printed any books yet (something I'm hoping to do), so I found it to be a good resource. This is the link if you want to read it: Photobook Review: Adoramapix & Picabook Seamless Lay Flat Comparison

I have used AdoramaPix, love their books, pages are thicker and layflat. Lately I've been using Shutterfly, if you do coke rewards, you can get free books from there with the coke points. You just have to pay for the shipping or any extra pages and add-ons.

Such great information and resources for photobooks! I have been wanting to make one for my mother and grandmother for Christmas, and this thread was so helpful for ideas on how to make that happen. Thank you!

AdoramaPix books are fabulous, and you can catch them on a good sale from time to time. I made a wedding book for my niece and had it printed there and it came out great. I've made one with the My Publisher software, and I've used Shutterfly. I usually use ArtsCow because they give away so many freebies and I can get multiple copies of one book to give as gifts. If you use your own pictures to create the front and back covers and spine, it can be a bit tricky to get it lined up. They have templates that you can use, and some free papers and elements and such if you don't want to upload your already created pages. You can also buy kits from them and they will be available to you to create your layout at their site. I have also purchased dog tags on chains from ArtsCow using my own uploaded photos and designs when they went on sale.

I'm a Shutterfly fanatic............I've printed all my books there and I mean a lot in both 8 x8 and 12 x 12 and I have never had an issue. They give away a ton of free books and also many other sites offer free shutterfly books as well.

I only print photo books, no albums for me . I have used MyPicTales, Shutterfly, MyPublisher, plus more over the years. Don't laugh, but I love Costco! Even with coupons, Costco is always so reasonable and I am always happy with my books and so are my family.

I suppose I still prefer individual layout prints. I was wondering if anyone knew of any place where I can go that prints out reasonable 8x8 or 8x10 prints. I've tried Walmart but I was wondering if any actual store does it cheaper?

I used to use Costco, for their old 12x12 book and I loved it. But now that they've changed to the new layflat, I haven't tried it.
Has anyone who used to use Costco, tried their new layflat book? How do you like it?

Also, I just ordered a book from Shutterfly and it came out slightly dark.
To Shutterfly users: Do you use their "auto correct" feature? Or do you slightly lighten your images to compensate for printing?

I'm a photographer and have ordered books from NUMEROUS places. It really comes down to budget and personal preference. I will say, you get what you pay for. Not that we all need to be reminded of that. Artscow (china), snapfish and shutterfly are cheap imho....and, well, you really do get what you pay for. I think their paper is really really very poor in comparison. I want a nice thick paper, smooth and good ink quality. And the binding is cheap too. For example....artscow uses ALOT of glue in their binding and thin thread in comparison. This may or may not matter to you, but it does to me which is why I'm mentioning it. If anything, it's something to be aware of going forward. These memory books should be treasured to last a very long time, and this is one area I don't scrimp on. So, I use coupons and wait for sales if I need to. I had tested books at many, many different book makers. I know that I am not going to want the same thing every one wants. I wanted to feel the binding and papers for myself. Also, I came to love the lay flat pages and learned to hate printed covers. After opening and closing the book, the photo cracks and creases and actually peels a bit in the binding (duh, right?) for many of the books. This shouldn't surprise any of us. So, I've opted to use linen, fabric, cow friendly leather, or dust jackets instead. The books look terrible with photo printed covers after even a year of show & tells!

Software. Some book makers have their own software programs to help you design your book and others are limited. One thing I found very important was the ability to move things around and use my own photo as the background instead of a plain color. I often create my pages in photoshop and upload it as a full page, or dual page spread. Be sure to get the actual dimensions and bleed dimensions to do this.

I don't expect that my input will valuable to many but I would encourage you to really test out various book printers for yourself. Be sure to "splurge" on a better quality one at least once so you can see the difference for yourself. Having some comparisons will really be the only way to help you find that printer you can rely on to create a keepsake book you're in love with, not based on someone else's opinion. I literally HATED my shutterfly and artscow books so I almost get disgusted when I hear people ordering from there. Isn't that funny? What someone swears by, I would use to start a fire. As I said, I want something different and the important thing is that YOU are happy with what you get, but don't put yourself in the position of you don't know what you're missing.

My non pro lab favorites are MyPublisher, AdoramaPix, and Blurb...but mostly I use pro labs that would require you to have a professional photographer account which some of you may or may not be able to create.

Here's a list of book printers that hopefully someone finds helpful. I excluded sites mentioned above that I would never order from ever again, but try them for yourself so you can make your own determination. There are numerous other sites too that are not listed. These are just one's I've used, seen, touched, felt, or have been able to sample in person. If you are interested in professional print labs, I'd be happy to provide some links for them as well.

I have used shutterfly. I've had two books that weren't so great so I sent photos of the pages falling out (I didn't even have to do that) and they resent me a new book! Great service; and if you're having trouble uploading before the deadlines, they will help you out and you can ask them to extend it for you for when it can be done and completed. I like it because I use "CM Storybook/Artisan" and I just put the pages on each page of my book...very simple, I can usually have it wrapped up in about a half hour if I really focus. Have had a couple of printed by CM but found them expensive as was Artisan. This way I can have 8X8's done for others, and when their "free book" comes up, I just go and put it into my "order" and mail it to whomever! Works for me!

Earlier in the year I was looking for a new book printer and I ended up trying Blurb (thank you Angela for your helpful post).

My book needed to be: 12"x12", 99 pages, thinner (so not layflat), and not expen$ive; that eliminated many of the bookmakers out there.

So I just tried BLURB and I love it. I use my own software for layouts and upload premade jpgs so I can't comment on their bookmaking tools but the printed book is great. The quality of the cover is very nice. The print quality is excellent. The color is bright and perfect. I didn't upgrade anything, so I bought the cheapest 12x12 book they make. I think the next time I will upgrade the paper because the heavier paper wasn't too much more, but I'll continue with the basic cover option.

And to update my previous post above:
- Costco's 12x12 layflat is glossy and thick and limited to 72 pgs. I have ordered 3 of them as gifts because they're really nice and have great bright color reproduction and excellent book quality, but for my personal collection I prefer a more matte finish and more pages
- Shutterfly did respond to my request for a lighter reprint of my book so kudos for good customer service, but the second book is identical to the first: dark image color and the wrap-photo cover is not securely glued to the binding

I use shutterfly and love them. I like being able to print photos from my phone so easily and I like their share sites. I recently lost an EHD and all my photos are safe on my share site. They have unlimited storage for free. I've also used snapfish but I prefer shutterfly.

My mom went to Israel last year, and for Christmas, I've scrapped her vacation, and I had the book printed by Snapfish. It came in today, and I'm so thrilled. I upgraded to better paper and layflat binding, and with a coupon, it was only $55 for 54 pages. Now to resist temptation and keep it put up until Christmas...